A distraught daughter of an ailing Alzheimer’s patient has told Thaivisa how her stricken mum is being forced out of Thailand.
And the family is laying the blame firmly at the door of Thai immigration for changing the financial rules.
The daughter has spoken of her family’s love for Thailand but this morning 77 year old Anna Padgett will be removed from her Chiang Mai care home and taken to Manila in the Philippines.
There she will easily get a three year visa without bothersome financial hassles.
Daughter DeAnna Denis, 57 said she personally loves Thailand and doesn’t want to go to the Philippines but the family have no choice. They simply don’t have enough money to deposit 800,000 baht in the bank and leave it there.
Mrs Denis and her husband who is 55 originally come from Atlanta. They were attracted to Thailand as a retirement option after running a successful web development business that they sold.
They still live off some revenues but it is not a great deal.
Her mother was looked after in the states by a relative until 2017 when they decided to move her over to Thailand. She has had Alzheimer’s for about 15 years. A home that specializes in Alzheimer’s care in Chiang Mai called Care Resort was found.
Though it costs 85,000 baht a month they could just afford it and pay for their own retirement needs first in Koh Samui then on the mainland in Khanom, Nakorn Sri Thammarat.
Everything was great and the family were all happy.
But when immigration shifted the goalposts all that changed.
Immigration refused to negotiate and allow the 86,000 baht to be considered as her mother’s income. \
Rules are rules they said and if they weren’t able to deposit the money that was that.
The family have put 800,000 baht in the bank and Mrs Padgett could stay to February next year. But with worries about her condition deteriorating and being unable to move her in the future they have decided that it is now or never.
Mrs Davis described dealing with immigration as highly problematical. She has received mixed messages but the bottom line for her mother is pay up or go.
“Of course my mother is blissfully unaware of all this. She doesn’t even know who I am. But she is happy where she is and we are very concerned about moving her into another potentially confusing environment”.
She first came to Thailand in 2015 knew it was for them. They threw themselves into learning Thai and the future looked rosy. They were delighted when mum moved here too in 2017 along with the couple’s 24 year old daughter who is an English teacher on Koh Samui.
“We are not totally happy about going to the Philippines. The care will not be so good as in Chiang Mai and the environment is not so good”, added Mrs Davis.
Mrs Padgett will be in Metro Manila – costs are a third of Thailand for her care.
“We love Thailand and we don’t want her to go but we now have no choice. We have been forced out by the new rules and we may go to live in the Philippines ourselves in the future”.
They hope that visiting mum will not be too great a drain on their resources.
She noted: “Thailand talks about being a hub for medical care but the immigration rules are just not conducive to that especially in our case.”
She said that costs in the USA were not affordable – a situation that led to Mrs Padgett being relocated to Thailand in the first place.
The family will be flying to Manila at 8 am today..
They hope to all come back one day and live in Thailand – but it may need changes to the immigration rules before that could ever become a possibility.
Thai Visa
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